We would today like to welcome Heyside Angels under 9s to SportsDirect.com Park who are our J D Williams Team Of The Week for this afternoons fixture against Bradford City.
Here is a little more information about the club:
Heyside Angels was established in 2000 as the girls section of Heyside Juniors FC, which is a Charter Standard Community club. Starting with two teams the club has expanded to 15, which provide football for girls from four years old right through to open age football. Heyside Angels were founder members of the Oldham Girls League (now North Manchester Girls League) and have been successful every year. 2007/2008 was an extremely successful year for the club, as the teams won 14 out the 15 trophies on offer which earnt the Angels a Pride of Oldham award.
The club regularly takes two girls team to Holland as part of an exchange scheme. The Dutch exchange scheme started when Heyside Juniors answered an advert in a football magazine in 1984. The first official trip was in 1985 when the Heyside Juniors went to play at vv Alverna near Nijmegen.
The exchange scheme was in danger of collapsing in 2003 as some internal difficulties meant vv Alverna could not continue hosting the club. Another club was asked to help and after a one year delay Heyside Juniors went over in 2004, not only with the boys squad but with Heyside Angels for the first time. This year is the tenth anniversary of the exchange with sv AWC.
This year there will be two boys and two girls teams going over to play at sv AWC. As part of the exchange schemes the players stay at host families’ houses, meaning that as well as playing football they also learn the culture of the host country. Because of this a wonderful relationship between a village from England and a town from Holland has developed, with many girls continuing to be friends now exists due to one advert back in 1984.
Today's J D Williams Team Of The Week, Heyside Angels Under 9s, formed last season however the majority of the girls came through the Heyside academy from the age of five. They have since had an influx of girls looking to play football with the emphasis at this age being on having fun. Due to the amount of players currently at the club they have been able to create two teams which promotes more playing time for the girls. Both teams play in the North Manchester Girls League on Saturday mornings and are coached and managed jointly by Frank Shaw and Ric Delaney.
Heyside Under 9s are currently sponsored by Aequitas Forensics.
Heyside Juniors and Angels always welcome new players of all ability. For more details, please contact Club Chairman, Steve Grice on 07784 248499 or Club Secretary and Welfare Officer, Mark Senior on 07765 495328. www.heysidejuniors.org.